* this weekend is Stumptown, one of the solid veterans of the indy-comics show and mostly-local show scenes. I hope to see you in that great comics city of Portland. Here is the latest exhibitor list. I'm looking forward to a Milo George-led Dylan Williams panel on Saturday early evening and experiencing Portland as a comics town directly and generally. I will update on multiple days. It should be an interesting show, and it is their anniversary, with limited-edition prints and everything, so congratulations.

* for mainstream comics book fans in particular, and comics fans of the Midwestern variety generally, it's C2E2 weekend. That Reed event is also an interesting show. It's very quiet, in a sense, but you know how you can plant tomatoes in just about any square of dirt in the Midwest and grow these massive, lovely, great-tasting things? I think that's also sort of true of conventions in Chicago. I think people are coming around to attending the show, and as long as that remains the case the show will do very well. Also, as a just-off-major show the bar con is likely to be fantastic and gossipy, and not just because they somehow shoehorn exclusive beers into that place. But please, comics people, get out of the Hyatt and go eat somewhere nice. Chicago is the best eating town in America $10 to $500.

* the Lakes International Comic Art Festival continues to add to its already-impressive guest list.

* Baltimore Comic-Con put its tickets on sale. They do some of those VIP-style tickets that I don't all the way understand, so there might be some extra reading involved. That is a very well-liked comics-centric, mostly mainstream comic books show that people talk about in the same sentences as Emerald City and Heroes. I've never been. Baltimore is great, though.

* it's a couple of weeks after the fact, but this is a fine photo set from this year's MoCCA Festival.